New message board

[mirth]

In case people haven't noticed, I've been doing some updates to the message board recently.

Jon, Brett, Dan, and I decided that if we can use the message board & club website to raise some funds to run an added cash event later this year or in 2007 then we should do it... So, at the top of the main board index you should see some text-based ads and at the bottom of each forum page you'll find some text links. 90% of the time they'll be disc golf related.

Coming to the main club site in the next day or so will be a Google Search box at the top of each page, right above the Flash buttons. There you'll be able to search Google's database on our site, PDGA.com, and the Internet. Additionally, the right column which to now has been empty, will contain more of the same text-based disc golf related ads.

This will initially be a three month trial run to get an idea what kind of funds can be raised and to gauge people's reactions.

Please post back with comments, etc.

[Bruce Brakel]

The ads are very unobtrusive, very unannoying in every way.  If displaying the ads makes Discontinuum a little money it is worthwhile. 

[mirth]

Thanks Bruce.

I should point out that in our attempts to generate some revenue from the club site we will never in any way knowingly add content that pops up/under ads or contains potential threats to your computer.

[Jon Brakel]

Thanks Bruce.

I should point out that in our attempts to generate some revenue from the club site we will never in any way knowingly add content that pops up/under ads or contains potential threats to your computer.

With that in mind I would invite anyone to report to us here in this thread any ads that you think are inappropriate for our website. We have confidence in our partner but welcome feedback from all of you that use this board. Our commitment is, and always will be, to deliver quality disc golf and disc golf information to our members and the disc golf community. Our hope is that these ads will allow us to provide even more to our members and the disc golf community without taking anything away from the Discontinuum site.

[CEValkyrie]

Is there any way to lenghten the active users list to 30 minutes?

[mirth]

Is there any way to lenghten the active users list to 30 minutes?

done

[Chainmeister]

Waddaya say you put the bougus links on the bottom of the page.  Bona fide ads such as Marshall Street- or any disc golf vender would be cool.  There are three links on the page.  Two for regular golf things-- bougus vacations etc and one that purports to give away a bag of champion discs.  The same scam is on a lot of websites-- sign up for something and then they might send you the item.  Usually they want to give you a computer, an iPod or some other seemingly too good to be true offer. Of course, who would want to sign up for those things.  Since its garbage, why put it at the top?

If the club is making money, I still think you should put these items in some segregated area that can be ignored.  This isn't a true public portal where any yahoo who gets snagged is good for the website.  Its a small community of disc golfers who get enough spam in their lives.

[Jon Brakel]

Waddaya say you put the bougus links on the bottom of the page.  Bona fide ads such as Marshall Street- or any disc golf vender would be cool.  There are three links on the page.  Two for regular golf things-- bougus vacations etc and one that purports to give away a bag of champion discs.  The same scam is on a lot of websites-- sign up for something and then they might send you the item.  Usually they want to give you a computer, an iPod or some other seemingly too good to be true offer. Of course, who would want to sign up for those things.  Since its garbage, why put it at the top?

If the club is making money, I still think you should put these items in some segregated area that can be ignored.  This isn't a true public portal where any yahoo who gets snagged is good for the website.  Its a small community of disc golfers who get enough spam in their lives.

Right now on the home page of the forum there are 2 ads at the top plus the Marshall Street banner ad. The two ads are for discination.com and pickadisc.com which are both disc golf sites. On some threads you get stranger links because of the topics on those pages. I did see the give away of discs. It was obvious from the survey that they wanted you to fill out that they are selling mailing lists. I haven't seen any bogus vacation, computer or ipod giveaways in the google ads, but let us know about them when you see them. We are treating this as a trial and will evaluate the revenue compared to the "cost" of having the ads. Our goal is to leverage the huge number of unique hits that we get on this site each month. We get a couple thousand unique visits each month and it could be a substantial revenue stream that we could put back into the local disc golf scene.

[Chainmeister]

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It was this kind of junk.  The iPods etc were examples of the same kind of survey that were used  with the alleged champion disc give away. Obviously, the word "golf" tickled their software and we will get everything from Anika Sorenstam to Z wasp. That being said, if we waste 15 minutes of somebody's time chasing the dream of a "free" night on the town with Tiger Woods so we can put six more baskets up at Bevier, I am all for it.

I had hit one of the golf vacation links just to see what it was and got the following e-mail just now after having posted the above...

...Doral Golf Resort & Spa ? Special Golf & Resort Credit Package! This email was sent by: Doral Golf Resort & Spa
4400 N.W. 87th Avenue Miami, FL, 33178,

It bypassed our firm's spamblocker.

[mirth]

The ads are based on content on the page the ads are displayed, which is why sometimes you may see things that appear a little funny. This is also why if you go to the Membership page on the main club site you'll see ads that relate in some way to membership or clubs (not necessarily disc golf).

The bogus giveaway ones are the kind of things. We have the ability to block any ads we don't want to see. I'm open to suggestions as to what people think isn't relevant and shouldn't be displayed....

[mirth]

You're saying you clicked on a link & without supplying any information you got an email?

[Chainmeister]

You're saying you clicked on a link & without supplying any information you got an email?

Pretty sure.  I had merely clicked on the golf resort links.  I followed the disc golf one for a couple minutes and did give some info, but interestingly enough, a different e-mail address.  So, I figure that unless its a big coincidence, I got a golf vacation solicitation at work by clicking the link while at work.

[Bruce Brakel]

My discussion of the 2-meter rule somewhere must have triggered the ad for the honeysuckle popper.  Which is funny because I think honeysuckle make some of the best obstacles on our home course.  That, and the apple trees which I'm going to spray so we can get tons of good apples next year.  Until we started using the other two yards I had no idea those trees were producing fruit.  Apple tree spray.  Oh, google bot: "apple tree spray." 

[Bruce Brakel]

I'm having problems with the table function.  The syntax used to be


a, s, d, f, g,
z, x, c, v,
q, w, e, r

Not working

[mirth]

new message board, different syntax. check the original post where you reported the problem.

[Jon Brakel]

For some reason I can't link back to my avatar so that I can use it on PDGA.com forums. Intended change, side effect or something else going on?

[mirth]

side effect, probably.

[Tom McManus]

Mirth, A big thank you.  The forum looks great and the online store looks fantastic. All your hard work has paid off.[/siz :Whaxatk:e]

[mirth]

tom - thanks. Now, here's a hint for using bbcode... type what you want to format, then select it so its all highlighted, then do whatever formatting stuff you want.
Alternatively, you can do the formatting stuff first, then start your text in the middle right before the first [/bbcode]

[myndcraft]

I'm having problems with the table function.  The syntax used to be


a, s, d, f, g,
z, x, c, v,
q, w, e, r

Not working

SMF Tables are rather annoying to work with, but allow for full markup within the tables allowing you to rather symbol things like

a	s	d	f	g
z	x	c	v
q	w	e	r

Or much more complex ones like this

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5
Row 1:	a	s	d	f	g
Row 2:	z	x	c	v
Row 3:	q	w	e	r

The best way though to make a table is to figure out the basic commands and then create the post in a text editor and then copy paste it over. The viewable area by default in SMF is too small for my liking when creating crazy table posts.